I first discovered Reinsurance Group of America Inc at the end of July last year. The company had just released a dismal set of second quarter results. However, the loss for the first quarter was, for the most part, superficial due to higher provisioning for losses related to sums reinsured in the Australian disability market. At time of writing, the stock was trading at $68.28.

Nearly 13 months on and the shares have risen to an all-time high of $83.15, beating the S&P 500 by a small margin of 3% over the same period, excluding dividends.

Despite this strong performance however, Reinsurance Group of America Inc appears to remain undervalued. The company reported fiscal second quarter results at the end of July, showing improvement across several metrics. Australian operations have recovered well and the company’s Australian arm reported results just above breakeven for the period.

Management has continued to buyback stock using excess capital and the number of ordinary shares in issue has dropped 4.2% year on year. Book value per share jumped 17.2% over the twelve month period. Total assets grew by 11.4%.

But it’s really the growth of Reinsurance Group of America Inc over the long term that continues to impress. From year end 2008, to a trailing twelve month figure, the company has grown the book value per share at a CAGR of 18.4%, assets at a CAGR of 12.8% and the dividend per share at a CAGR of 24.6%. Additionally, over the same period reported EPS have expanded at a GAGR of 15% and revenue at a CAGR of 12.3%.

On a valuation basis, RGA is currently trading at a P/B value of 0.9, below the insurance industry average of 1.2. The company trades at a forward P/E of 9.8, once again below the industry average of 11.8 and price to free cash flow ratio of 3.2, below the industry average of 8.8. On a historic basis, the company is trading 10% above its ten-year average forward P/E of 9.